It was striking how many of last night’s winners appeared to have gone into film production after their 80’s hair bands had broken up.
SNL cold open this week?
Jason Sudeikis / Bobby Moynihan / Bill Hader
(Source: chriskula)
Mmmm…Oscar Popcorn…
Popcorn party policy: dress to impress.
(There’s MAPLE-BACON and ROSEMARY-BROWN BUTTER and S’MORES POPCORN up in here, people.)
the world is a little better now
Though it still doesn’t make up for no live song performances.
(Source: k-c-w, via mimesandpunishment)
"And certain segments that went over huge in the room seemed baffling from a TV audience perspective. Grazer was so excited to get Cirque du Soleil in to perform, and the people in the theater ate it up, but even if the piece was in theory about the experience of going to the movies, it had so little to do with what it’s actually like to go to the movies as to be besides the point. (None of the Cirque members started texting in mid-air, for instance.) For this, they didn’t let us see a performance of “Man or Muppet”? For this, Octavia Spencer got played off? For this, James Earl Jones didn’t get to give a speech at all on the live show?"
—
Review: Academy Awards telecast and host Billy Crystal lean heavily on nostalgia - HitFix.com (via elizs)
The lack of a live performance of “Man or Muppet” was by far my biggest disappointment with the Oscars. Other than the fact that I knew almost nothing about most of the nominees, that is.
(via elizs)
Tweet"Nothing can take the sting out of the economic crisis like watching millionaires provide each other with golden statues."
— Billy Crystal, crystallizing the Oscars in one sentence.
Tweet
"As for your hosts, Hathaway worked her derriere off and Franco came off like that lacrosse boy you wish your daughter didn’t hang out with so much, sort of heavy-lidded and smirky and … well, let’s give him credit for being James Franco, the 23-hour-a-day workaholic/grad student/filmmaker/soap-opera/not-Best Actor wunderkind of his generation.
Turns out hosting Oscars is when the dude decides to take a rest. The only required trick for Franco and Hathaway was to manage to not look like they were doing one of those flirty commercials for a phone plan. (He’s so laid back! She’s so hyper! And now they get unlimited 4G downloads and texting! etc.)
Instead, like first-graders at a Thanksgiving pageant, they waved to their relatives. Hathaway’s mother stood up in the audience to urge her daughter to stand up straight; Franco’s grandmother was given a lame Marky Mark joke to make about “The Fighter’s” Mark Wahlberg. Sweet jokes, yes, but not the youth revolution that Oscar’s month of hot-new-hosts hype had promised. What’s with the moldy “Back to the Future” shtick and the six-degrees-of-Kevin Bacon line? “Inception”-ing Alec Baldwin’s dreams in order to figure out how to host the Oscars? Here’s a revolution: Host the Oscars and shaddup about it. Skip the self-referencing. Wasn’t the idea to lean forward?
It’s such a her and him thing. She spent the evening trying hard to really sell it (with iffy results) and then, late in the night, it was her job to tell him what a good job he was doing, and he’s all, like, ‘lax, bro."
Turns out hosting Oscars is when the dude decides to take a rest. The only required trick for Franco and Hathaway was to manage to not look like they were doing one of those flirty commercials for a phone plan. (He’s so laid back! She’s so hyper! And now they get unlimited 4G downloads and texting! etc.)
Instead, like first-graders at a Thanksgiving pageant, they waved to their relatives. Hathaway’s mother stood up in the audience to urge her daughter to stand up straight; Franco’s grandmother was given a lame Marky Mark joke to make about “The Fighter’s” Mark Wahlberg. Sweet jokes, yes, but not the youth revolution that Oscar’s month of hot-new-hosts hype had promised. What’s with the moldy “Back to the Future” shtick and the six-degrees-of-Kevin Bacon line? “Inception”-ing Alec Baldwin’s dreams in order to figure out how to host the Oscars? Here’s a revolution: Host the Oscars and shaddup about it. Skip the self-referencing. Wasn’t the idea to lean forward?
It’s such a her and him thing. She spent the evening trying hard to really sell it (with iffy results) and then, late in the night, it was her job to tell him what a good job he was doing, and he’s all, like, ‘lax, bro."
— TV review: At Oscars, the kids were all right and the ‘Speech’ was well-prepared
Tweet
CROWDED HOUSE The various Academy Award winners took to the stage en masse during the show’s finale. (Photo: Monica Almeida / The New York Times)
Oscars coming up in a few hours — anyone have good advice on picks for my Oscar pool? Especially in Best Supporting Actress: could the Fighter’s actresses cancel out each other’s support and let Ms. Steinfeld slip through with the win?
Personally, I’m pulling for the King’s Speech and Colin Firth, but I think the overall crop of best picture nominees is filled with good but not great choices (at least of the five I’ve seen).
So sayeth Nate Silver:
Since I last wrote about this year’s Academy Award nominees for Best Picture, there has been a significant shift in the conventional wisdom about the probable winner. “The Social Network,” which was once considered as likely as 90 percent certain to win by betting markets, is now given only about a 20 percent chance. “The King’s Speech,” instead, has become the heavy favorite. It’s tempting to say that the conventional wisdom has gotten ahead of itself.
Even if “The King’s Speech” seems to have some momentum, recently having picked up awards from the directors’ and producers’ guilds, “The Social Network” has still won significantly more hardware over the course of the entire season, including the Golden Globes.
Not all awards are created equal, however. And “The King’s Speech” has been winning the awards that matter the most. I have more over at the Carpetbagger blog. Read more.
Best Picture Nominees
- 127 Hours
- Black Swan
- The Fighter
- Inception
- The Kids Are All Right
- The King’s Speech
- The Social Network
- Toy Story 3
- True Grit
- Winter’s Bone
I’ve got a few to catch up on — who will the Oscar go to?
TweetThree Oscar thoughts
Well done, Katherine Bigelow—a great accomplishment both considering and regardless of your gender.
Great speech, Sandra Bullock—maybe I’ll see the Blind Side after all.
Congrats, Jeff Bridges—we all learned tonight that you weren’t acting at all in The Big Lebowski.
TweetOscar Nominees Announced
Let the best picture battle begin:
BEST PICTURE
- Avatar
- The Blind Side
- District 9
- An Education
- The Hurt Locker
- Inglourious Basterds
- Precious
- A Serious Man
- Up
- Up in the Air
I’ve seen four of the ten, but of those, I’d say Hurt Locker and Up are my two favorites, with Inglorious Basterds next and Avatar (which technically amazing) not, IMO a best picture caliber film.
